Greens in action

Greens everywhere are proving that clean, green energy is the future and exposing the hidden costs and deceptions of the nuclear industry.

In the UK, elected Green Party members are increasing investment in renewable energy and energy-saving, and creating new jobs.

We need more elected Greens to make sure this work continues and expands to make an even greater difference.

 

In local areas around the UK

Green councillors are making real progress in implementing positive changes on the ground all over the UK.

 

Kirklees

In the local authority of Kirklees, recent Green Group successes include securing £100,000 for solar street lighting and £500,000 for energy-saving measures in schools and care homes.

Wind turbines are being installed in schools, zero-energy developments are being built and a 100-home 'solar village' is under construction. Photovoltaics and solar water heating have been put on the roof of the local community centre.

These sorts of green measures are being seen by the people of Huddersfield every day and it's the Green Party councillors who are the driving force for real, postive change.

In December 2005, Green Party cabinet member for Housing, Andrew Cooper, pushed through measures to ensure that 30% of all new council-run buildings' energy needs come from renewable energy, and the new policy also applies to extensions to existing council properties.

 

Free insulation

A key Green Policy for local councillors is inspired by the biggest success of the Greens in Kirklees, introducing a universal scheme to bring free insulation to every home in the area.

Kirklees Warm Zone is one of the biggest and most comprehensive programmes to tackle domestic energy efficiency and climate change in the UK. Every home in Kirklees which is suitable for loft and cavity wall insulation will receive this work for free! This is a first in the UK and has already created more than 100 new jobs in the local area.

On a house by house, ward by ward basis, Warm Zone will contact every householder, giving every resident the opportunity to make their home warmer and more comfortable, contribute to reducing energy consumption and make a positive impact on the environment.

The programme has support of over £20 million confirmed over a three year period, with funding from Kirklees Council, Scottish Power, National Grid, the Regional Housing Board, Scottish Power Energy People Trust and British Gas Energy Trust.

More than 40,000 homes will benefit in the first three years alone, bringing savings to many more households, much more quickly than schemes with complicated means testing.

More about Kirklees Warm Zone.

More about the Green plans for free insulation

Watch Councillor Andy Cooper talking about the scheme. 

 

Lancaster

Gina Dowding, one of the 8 Green councillors in Lancaster, blew the whistle on the fact that Lancaster City Council had allowed the local nuclear plant, run by British Energy, to get away with putting off paying its business rates at a cost to the local taxpayers of £18,000.

Green MEP Caroline Lucas dug further and sparked a European Commission legal investigation that uncovered a vast web of hidden subsidies paid by the government to nuclear companies costing hundreds of millions of poinds every year - real green victory for ordinary people over the power of governments and big business.

Councillor Dowding was suspended for three months from the Council but was vindicated by the European Commission who determined this kind of state aid was unlawful.

 

In London

London's Green Party members of the London Assembly have worked effectively since 2000 to help make the Mayor's work greener and more sustainable.

From 2004 to 2008, the votes of the Green AMs were essential to the Mayor in order to pass his annual budget with a two-thirds majority, and during that time they won many concessions that have helped to make London a greener, cleaner city.

As chair of the Environment Committee, Darren Johnson AM produced the 'Power to the People' report in May 2005, on barriers to micro-generation take-up in London.

In 2001, Darren chaired the Nuclear Waste Trains Investigative Committee to review the safety of trains carrying high-level nuclear waste through London.

Green AMs helped persuade the Mayor of the need for London to have an Energy Strategy, and then were effective in ensuring it included a 10% requirement for on-site renewables in all new developments.

Darren Johnson campaigned for on-site renewables at the Olympics, and helped get a pledge for 20% green energy at olympic sites.

Darren has also pressed for energy efficiency and on-site renewables at LFEPA, and opened the PV roof at Richmond fire station.

Darren and Jenny Jones AM campaigned for London to help pilot the use of hydrogen fuel cell buses. Currently three hydrogen buses, emitting nothing more than steam are serving passengers in central London.

In September 2004, Jenny and Darren carried out exclusive research which showed more than half of London's joinery companies were prepared to fit illegal single-glazed windows that waste energy and increase carbon dioxide emissions.

Jenny said, "I am amazed at the number of companies which will flout the law. The extra costs of double-glazing when replacing worn out windows is a most cost efficient way of reducing fuel bills and cutting CO2 – and that’s why the regulations were introduced."

 

In Scotland

The Scottish Green Party is campaigning hard on energy and climate change through the Scottish Parliament.

In June 2009, several key Green Party proposals were endorsed by Holyrood's Economy, Energy & Tourism Committee. The report is intended to show how the energy sector can help Scotland achieve the 42% carbon reduction target for 2020 set by the Climate Act, and its proposals include:

1. Between £100m and £170m to be spent each year on insulation, energy efficiency and tackling fuel poverty. The Scottish Greens last year proposed a free universal insulation scheme for Scotland's homes, costed at the lower end of this range, but the Scottish Government rejected the idea.

2. Scotland's electricity network to be significantly decentralised, to support individual and local energy networks. This would allow much greater community ownership of renewables, boosting uptake and support for these schemes and increasing fairness as well as efficiency.

3. Consent for major grid upgrades, including the Beauly-Denny power line, to be speeded up. Scotland has extraordinary renewable resources, but most are located away from our major cities. Changes of this sort would allow Scotland not only to go 100% renewable but also to export clean energy to the rest of the UK and internationally.

Read the full report here.

Climate Change Bill

The passage of Scotland's Climate Change Bill in June 2009 was described by the Scottish Greens as the first key battle in Scotland's efforts to tackle climate change.

On several issues, Parliament forced the SNP to go further, but the Bill remains flawed in several key areas, and major loopholes exist around the targets set in the Bill.

Green amendments to require aviation and shipping to be accounted for were agreed, and all future Scottish budgets will need to show the carbon costs of each item. Parliament also blocked Labour's attempt to block action on plastic bags.

On the other hand, Green MSP Patrick Harvie's amendments to take the interim target to 50% were rejected, despite the strong scientific evidence for action on this scale. Parliament also voted to allow a higher proportion of the reductions to be "offshored", rather than coming from real change here in Scotland.

Climate Change Inquiry

One of the biggest achievements of the Greens in Scotland so far has been a successful call for the Parliament to hold an inquiry into climate change. Green MSP Mark Ruskell, who was vice-convener of the Environment Committee of the parliament in 2005, hailed the resulting inquiry as a 'wake up call' to the Scottish Executive to raise its game.

The inquiry has helped inform the revision of the Executive's Climate Change Programme and helped lead to the new Climate Bill setting binding targets for climate emissions, which ws passed in 2009 (see above).

Press release - 17/11/04
Press release - 26/01/05
Inquiry Report

 

In the European Parliament

Jean Lambert and Caroline Lucas, the UK's Green Party MEPs have consistently challenged policymakers to take climate change seriously and reform their approach to energy policy since they were first elected in 1999.

Their recent achievements include:

EU climate package

The Green MEPs have played a key role in negotiations on the EU's Climate and Energy Package, and Caroline has been particularly active in pressing for more ambitious targets and timetables. She has demanded tougher vehicle emission standards, and stronger laws on maximum emissions from power stations. She has also pressed the EU to scrap its controversial commitment to mass biofuels

Caroline has led the Green group's work in negotiating improvements to the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), calling for a cap on overall emissions, tough limits on the amount of offsetting permitted and arguing against free allocation of emission permits. As a member of the Parliament's Climate Change Committee , she has played a key role in preparing for international negotiations on a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol.

Renewable energy and energy efficiency

Caroline has supported a number of community and business initiatives to develop the renewable energy sector in the South East. She has been active in the campaign against
proposals for a new coal fired power station at Kingsnorth in Kent and participated in Climate Camp 2008 at the site to highlight the potential of alternative green energies.

Caroline has also continued to speak out against nuclear power, arguing that the UK can meet its energy reduction targets instead through a combination of energy efficiency,
renewables and combined heat and power. Through her work on the European Parliament's Environment Committee, she has sought to ensure that the conditions needed for renewables to develop effectively are in place, such as ambitious binding targets and penalties for Member states, as well as priority access for the renewables sector to energy supply networks.

Jean's report, Green Work: Employment and skills - the climate change challenge, advocates a UK training programme to ensure the workforce is equipped to enhance and develop expanding renewable energy industries.

Emissions from housing

Jean has explored ways of reducing climate emissions from housing in her report Hothouses: Climate change and London's housing. Over 37% of London's carbon emissions come from the housing sector - more than the total emissions from London's surface transport. The report recommends introducing home insulation, creating onestop-shops for advice on improving energy efficiency in the home and targeting fuel poverty.

A Green New Deal

Caroline is a member of the influential UK group that produced the Green New Deal report, calling for wide-scale government investment in energy efficiency and insulation
in homes to help to create hundreds of thousands of green jobs.

Exposing the nuclear industry

Caroline Lucas has provoked a European Commission investigation into the legality of UK government subsidies to nuclear power giant British Energy.

Caroline has also initiated an EU investigation into whether the UK government allowed EU nuclear safety laws to be broken when permitting the release of nuclear waste from the Aldermaston nuclear weapons factory and Devonport dockyards.

Highlighting the UK's failure to implement EU environment laws

In September 2005, a report commissioned by the Green Party group in the European Parliament , 'So much hot air' revealed how the UK Government has failed to fully implement EU laws designed to tackle climate change.

The report examined the UK's response to five EU directives designed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

The Greens' analysis showed that, despite their pledge to make climate change a priority, the Government has:

• delayed implementation of the Energy Performance of Buildings directive
• demanded an increase in the UK's carbon emissions permitted under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme
• failed to set binding targets for energy demand reduction under the Energy Services Directive
• failed to promote small-scale combined heat and power plants in line with the Co-generation directive.

 

Green Party reports

July 2009
Nuclear Power? No Point!
Darren Johnson AM reviews recent developments.

March 2009
Nuclear justification: There isn't one
Green Party submission to the government's consultation on justification of nuclear new-build

November 2008
Towards a budget for a Green New Deal
The Green Party's proposals for a Pre-Budget Report

September 2008
Green Work
Employment and skills - the climate change challenge 

September 2008
Response to Renewable Energy consultation
A response by the Green Party to the government's energy consultation

September 2007
Green Print for a renewable energy policy that works
How the government needs to change to get clean green energy

February 2006
The Alternative Energy Report
A report which compares nuclear power with a range of electricity-saving measures

December 2005
Small is powerful
Scottish Green Party consultation document on the Micropower Generation Bill, with proposals to boost locally-generated renewable energy in Scotland

October 2005
Keeping the Lights on: Nuclear, Renewables, and Climate Change
The Green Party case against nuclear power, submitted to the Environmental Audic Committee enquiry

September 2005
'So much hot air'
Report by European Greens on the UK's failure to implement EU environment laws

September 2005
Reducing Europe's dependency on oil
The European Green Group's response to oil price rises

February 2005
Turning down the heat
Consultation paper on the Home Energy Efficiency Bill by the Scottish Green Party

September 2004
What a pane!
London Greens reveal half of London's joinery companies will fit illegal windows that waste energy.

June 2004
Smart Energy Europe
Real Progress on climate change

June 2004
Fair on fuel: Fair on the future
A social, economic and environmental case for higher fuel taxes

November 2003
"Whistleblower" background briefing
How Cllr Gina Dowding fell foul of the Local Government Act 2003 - for telling the public how their money was being spent subsidising the nuclear industry

April 2003
The Green Party's alternative energy review 2003
A Green Party briefing on the 2003 Energy Review

April 2003
Green Energy: A guide for local authorities
A Green Party local elections briefing

April 2003
Solar Century
How local authorities can fuel the solar revolution of the 21st century

May 2001
Best of Both Worlds: policies for sustainability AND job creation
Report by Dr Spencer Fitz-Gibbon

Councillor Gina Dowding exposed secret nuclear subsidies in Lancaster

 

Jenny Jones AM


Artist's impression of a Pelamis hinged contour device wave farm being developed in Scotland
Source: Ocean Power Delivery Ltd

 

Shiona Baird

 

Mark Ruskell

Green Councillors in Huddersfield are fitting solar panels to homes across the town.

"Strategies for improving the environment rely heavily on training. It is vital that we meet CO2 reduction targets but we won't be successful if the next generation are not trained in improving the environment. How will we meet targets if we haven't got any trained solar panel fitters, for example?"

Jean Lambert MEP, member of the European Parliament's Employment and Social Affair's Committee

 

Caroline Lucas in the European Parliament

Caroline Lucas is coauthor of the influential Green New Deal report